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Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, Men of Confidence or Great Fear?

Ghazal Omid - 5/20/2008

If you could look into their eyes, hear their voice and read the silent language of gestures, what would you see, men of confidence or great fear? May 1, 2008 was declared Teachers’ day in Iran. It also featured a rare trip for Ali Khamenei to Shiraz. The senior leader of IRI has been diagnosed with many illnesses. Years have passed since his Presidency when he lost the use of his right hand to a bomb. Last year there were rumors of handing power to his successors. It is a rare and important gesture for him to venture to Shiraz, which is known in Iranian history as the cradle of Farsi Literature.

Traveling out of his compound was intended to show him as still powerful and to put an end to such rumors. Curiously, it was hard to miss the disparity of his impression; fiercely striding the red carpet before the soldiers as he carried but did not use the cane he extracted from his garb. He is, after all, the Commander of Chief of IRI troops...

He has been in power since Khomeini passed away and his son died mysteriously just before Khamenei declared himself the leader. His Shiraz tour was a rare, defining moment in IRI history because Khamenei said, “The Presidency of Bush is over and the troubles will be handed over to the next President”. He seemed confident in his speech that war is no longer on the table; whereas, in Washington DC, it makes Iranians sweat every time the President or Secretary Gates speaks of Iran. Particularly since so much ammunition made in Iran seems to be making a case against the IRI in Iraq.

One of the easiest ways for IRI to unify the Iranian people against the West is to incite and facilitate a war on Iran by continuing to produce and export ammunition to Iraq while maintaining innocence even though the ammunition can be traced to Iran.
A frustrated “Islamic Republic of Iraq” has sent a five man delegation to IRI to warn it to stop meddling in their country.

The trip was a staged preparation attempt by IRI leader to rally support of their regime. Khamenei does not travel a lot but when he does his security is intense. Even so, on the IRINN broadcast, the man standing next to Khameini on the reviewing stand was visibly shaking and rolling his eyes over the marching troops; perhaps remembering the assassination of Anwar Sadat of Egypt in near identical circumstances. Khameini is the architect and rock of the revolution. His loss could be a fatal blow to the survival of this regime.

Khamenei’s attempt to show strength despite his age and obvious poor physical health fail is not convincing. To the trained linguistic, his tone of voice, the volume he uses to speak at people and his eyes reveal his fear, his smarts, his ambitions, his dissatisfaction and his question of the loyalty of his followers, whose ranks shrink daily because he has repeatedly failed to fulfill the promises he has made for the past 30 years. He speaks about how satisfied he is but his tone of voice says otherwise; as though he is musing, “Can I truly trust these men marching before me?” His implied question begs the IRI’s strength. Despite the show they put on pretending to be politically powerful in the eyes of the world, the clumsiness is beginning to show.

The stadium full of teachers who had been “invited” to see Khamenei whether they wanted to or not, endured long lines in the heat for the mandatory privilege. Everyone, including Khamenei, was sweating profusely but he resisted wiping his sweat while speaking and showed no emotion or discomfort; presumably for fear the audience would discover he is as human as they are when, in fact, he has as many or more fears as them which has no doubt contributed to his aging so grossly while clinging to the power of the highest and most comfortable office of the IRI.

He speaks at people rather than to them as he tries to blame everything that has gone wrong in the last thirty years on the United States, Israel or the small entities of politically inclined Iranians who have a genuine interest in helping the Iranian people stand up for a regime change before someone decides enough IRI is enough and bombs Iran.

As an Iranian expert on the issues of IRI and religion, I see it as my human duty to stand up, along with other Iranians, and show Iranians inside Iran the vulnerabilities of the IRI in order to strengthen the dissident movements in Iran.

Khameini constantly tries to hide his fears from his audiences which seem mesmerized by his smarts at his age. The French say, “Eyes are the windows to the heart.” Khameini’s accusations that the opposition is siding with evil are attempts to sidetrack Iranians from their quest for freedom. He knows that every Iranian who speaks against him is not evil and is not standing against God to banish religion from Iran. But he is not man enough or Godly enough to admit it. Despite his preposterous blandishments, he must know, deep in his heart, that all his rhetoric desperately trying to project an image of leadership and explain failure to average Iranians is not convincing them. Iranians are more interested in tangible leadership by someone who can help them with their every day needs.

They may think him smart and many appear awed by his use of formal Farsi to add an air of sophistication. There is, however, a difference between good deed smarts and bad smarts that many of his audience miss.

The majority that needs to rise up in Iran is debating a moral issue. Many say they are not sure he is deceiving them while some prominent resident Iranians are blinded by the morality argument over what will happen to our religion’s after this regime is gone. Others, such as Rafsanjani, are motivated by greed to keep the current regime in power because it affords them the opportunity to make more money. For the masses, Khameini offers very little beyond a promise of Heaven, which is too tempting to pass up, while, in fact, they must know they are morally obligated to all other Iranians to believe Khameini’s lies in the name of God.

Khamenei speaks at people using speech techniques employed by politicians and media to impress or denigrate their political opponent or guest but, since he dresses modestly, he is not scrutinized and questioned as a political leader in a suit would be. His use of these techniques as he portrays himself as a devout Muslim leader is truly a deception toward authentic Islam he pretends to practice.

Late Grand Ayatollah Boroujerdi, a good and Godly man of great intelligence and knowledge of Islamic law, once was among a small group of acquaintances, when a man entered his home, complaining that the Mullah from a local neighborhood was stealing from him; saying to the Grand Ayatollah, “A Mullah has turned into a thief.” Grand Ayatollah corrected him, saying, “No, a thief has become a Mullah.”

The Grand Ayatollah’s son, also an Ayatollah, who rallied 200,000 people for a demonstration against the IRI, is now in Evin Prison, along with seventeen members of his family, all under death sentences rendered by a Mullah Judge after brief private interrogations of the defendants, all of whom were denied legal representation.

As a scholar, I know that an authentic religion of any kind can’t have it two ways; one for the people and one for the leaders.

Ahmadinejad, Khamenei’s puppet, was also on a lecture tour about the Iranian economy. Since his party’s election, he has been claiming that he would revive the economy by more “practical means” but has yet to define or explain the term.

In an unprecedented speech, Ahmadinejad, President of the IRI, admitted for the first time that the government cannot fix the economy. Making a gesture of handing over the problem to the “Exemplary academics” to which he was speaking, he made the incredulous statement, “The economy is not government’s job to fix. It is your job to research and tell us what is not working.” This is a far cry from the regimes old practice of shouting, “God will provide.”

Apparently, IRI is just now waking up to the reality of the aftermath of revolution; recognizing that holding a country together requires more than Friday Prayers and the cheers of their paid soldiers. It is as though they have just figured out that God is not on their side and is not going to drop bread from the sky for starving Iranians as He did for Moses and the Israelites.

There is currently considerable debate whether the United States economy is in a recession. There is little debate that Iran’s economy has been in a recession for the past thirty years. Inflation is rampant but it is not the price of gold and gasoline that makes people shiver; it is the price of tomatoes, yogurt, cheese, bread and rice.

Everything goes up weekly; sometimes daily. Despite the rosy pictures broadcast by IRINN Health Section advising everyone to add colorful food to their diet, there are thousands of families in Iran that can afford to have a bite of fruit no more than monthly. This is far below the international poverty line and malnutrition is evident in the faces of people on the streets of Iran.

Addiction, prostitution, crimes, child abuse and child labor are on the rise in Iran and no amount of gestures alone by Khamenei or Ahmadinejad can make these problems go away.

It would be a Godly decision for the IRI to stop misusing God and give up power but, of course, we all know God had nothing to do with IRI coming to power. This decision was made elsewhere but God seems to be getting the blame.

IRI uses God to brainwash Iranians who have faith and are afraid of a regime change only because they fear the next regime will abandon their faith and turn mosques into bars and casinos.

A few outspoken Iranians, bitter toward Islam and with access to Iranian media, express their anger on satellite television, in writings, blogs and phone calls on live television. Their anger may be righteous but, channeled the wrong way against Islam instead of against the regime that is corrupting the religion; it is helping instead of hurting IRI.

Although most of those who speak against Islam are truly patriotic Iranians and it is their First Amendment right to express their opinion, their microphones, pens and passion have unintentionally worked against freedom in Iran. All civilized people have the right and duty to speak their minds against radicalism; however, they must fight radicalism, not the religion. The anti-Islam speech is one the reasons older domestic Iranians influential in decision makings are increasingly turning deaf ears to outside help.

The message of hating Islam has turned IRI into the darling of the Islamic World. Khomeini, in a speech in Behesht-e- Zahra on the day he returned to Iran in 1979, vowed, “We will export our revolution to other countries.”

Currently, two Islamic republics, one on either side of Iran, are being supported by US taxpayers.

If we are going to end IRI and its message of hate to the world, it can’t be done by hating Islam; this misguided tactic only strengthens them.

Iranians residing in Iran need a guarantee that religion and politics will forever be on separate avenues while respecting one another. Separation of mosque and state in Iran will be a good thing for Iranians because authentic religion needs to be in the heart. Religion of the mind is the religion of businessmen and people like Rafsanjani.

There is no such thing as a man of God who runs a public office. It is a fantasy that needs to be excised. The next regime should be founded on secular law; not on Shariah Law that requires translators and interpreters of many backgrounds. For lack of a better example, usage of Shariah Law is similar to incorporating the Morse code into our daily lives.

Not having access to the free media existing outside Iran, the job of educating Iranians falls on a few satellite televisions from Los Angeles and the Voice of America. The Islamic education of Iranians through word of mouth and writings has proven to be massive and difficult. In the absence of authentic Islamic instruction, the average Iranian Muslim believer is effectively obligated to follow the teachings of a selected ayatollah in practicing his religion. Not having access to courageous and authentic religious leaders, such as Ayatollah Boroujerdi, is a huge loss.

The alternative is to turn off the blasphemy so people can hear the voice of reason from their heart. The messages of TV and radio must help everyone, including those who serve in the government of Iran, not by choice but out of obligation to feed their families. To put a hole in the body of the IRI government where they are positioned to be most effective, they need to feel in their hearts that the IRI is only about promises of Heaven if you follow and Hell if you don’t but the IRI leaders themselves stand on the wrong side of God.

If there is ever a court of law against the IRI, as a Shiah Islam scholar and researcher, I would have no problem backing up my statements with cognitive science and research.

But in the Court of God, on Judgment Day, I don’t need to provide any evidence. God is already aware of the crimes committed in his name by the IRI.

A last reminder to the readers; it is NOT God we are after, it is the IRI. God is God and He must remain in our hearts, however we choose to worship Him. In translation, God, in English, means Allah in Arabic, Khoda in Farsi, Le Dieu in French, and Dias in Spanish. We will find Him called differently in many languages but there can not be more than one Creator. With respect to God, I caution you about insulting His name.